Brissa recently moved from Tesoro to Valero where she is the Director of Community Relations and Government Affairs As Manager of Public Affairs and Government Affairs for Tesoro, Brissa Sotelo-Vargas manages and coordinates the full range of communication and stakeholder management activities for the company’s Los Angeles Refinery. She handles everything from government relations, community relations, media relations to crisis communications. A part of these duties involves remaining current on all salient industry-related issues occurring in the local area and on a global level. She monitors and analyzes the business, political, and regulatory environment to assess current or potential issues that could affect the company’s reputation and license to operate. Sotelo-Vargas then develops strategies and implements tactics in response to these factors. She also manages the refinery’s social investment activities—empowering the community to work with private industry to achieve mutually beneficial results is not easy. Brissa serves on several boards in the community, including Board Member of the San Pedro, Peninsula & Wilmington YMCA, Board Member of the Los Angeles Chamber Executive Board, BizFed Board, Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation Board, the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality Advisory Board and Institute graduate, and past fellow of the Southern California Leadership Network. She holds two masters from the University of Southern California in Communication Management from the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and another in Public Policy from the Sol Price School of Policy Planning and Development.
